Windows 10: Can I turn my External HDD off and on to prevent a ransom attack?

Sometime the $2.00 solution is the best one!

I can't believe the security companies haven't figured out a way to isolate your back up HDD, then prompt you to turn it on for back up.

 

You can't trust this to software.

Any such method is inherently insecure. Security companies are well aware of this. Anything that legitimate software can do, malware can do as well. In recent years all forms of malware have become VERY sophisticated. Malware authors are experts in computer security, but specifically how to evade it.

The best way to isolate a drive from the computer is to physically disconnect it. Removing power to the drive is better than any software method but if lightning strikes everything physically connected to the computer is at risk.

 

That's exactly what I did with a couple of my drives. I bought a generic off/on switch, spliced it into the power cord & now I can turn it off/on with no problems.

I have no idea what the deal is with removing the off/on switch on external drives. They used to come with those until about 3 or 4 years ago when all of a sudden they seemingly disappeared from all of them. At least I haven't seen any recently that had those anymore, although I'm sure there's still some out there....maybe?